


Fire Meet Gasoline

by itsYOUiSEVER



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Age Difference, Arson, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Explicit Language, F/M, Flashbacks, Graphic Description, Major Original Character(s), Pre-Season/Series 01, Pyromania, Season/Series 06, Violence Against Walkers, Walkers, Walkers (Walking Dead), Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 18:06:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8411308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsYOUiSEVER/pseuds/itsYOUiSEVER
Summary: Kyler Rovia wasn't a stranger to hard times. She had grown up in many different foster homes never staying in one of them for too long. For her, the apocalypse wasn't much different. She moved from camp to a different camp and she didn't ever expect to stay long. When Paul, her adoptive "father", and Gideon, her adoptive brother and best friend, wound up in Hilltop, she hadn't expected them to stay there very long but when months passed and they had yet to need to leave, she wondered if things were going to be different in these hard times. Then he came into her life. He bounded into their camp demanding half their supplies in exchange for protection and he fascinated her. At first her camp refused his offer and that was their first mistake. A few weeks after his first appearance, he was back sporting the same bat with barbed wire wrapped around it on his shoulder and a wide grin on his face. He rounded up all the members of Hilltop and forced them to kneel in a line while he spoke in a tone that was eerie. He spoke of all the horribles things that he had done with a smile on his face that intrigued Kyler.





	

**Author's Note:**

> In which a rebellious young woman who has a fascination with fire is thrown into an apocalyptic world and she finds herself face to face with a man who lets her be who she is and doesn't try to change her.

 

“Where do you think you’d be right now if _this_ all hadn’t happened?”

Kyler knew exactly where she would be right in that moment if _this_ hadn’t happened. _This_ meaning the whole zombie apocalypse. She’d be in jail for arson. She had been due in court for the verdict hearing about two weeks after the world went to shit so she lucked out on that experience. It hadn’t been her best idea to set fire to her boss’s pretty new car especially not in the parking garage that she did it in because she had gotten caught.

Her fascination with fire had gotten her in trouble once or twice while she was still in the foster system before Paul Rovia stepped into her life when she and Gideon were both fourteen. Truth be told, her fascination still got her in trouble even in the zombie apocalypse though Paul took steps to make sure that she didn’t really have access to fire, like the fact that he took her Zippo lighter from her which she hadn’t been happy about at all. She didn’t like that Paul continued to play the dutiful father even when she was twenty-four years old.

She gave a pointed look to the man who asked her the stupid question and he just held his hands up in mock surrender with deep laughter echoing from his lips. Her two toned eyes settled on her friend who was currently stretched out like a cat across a couch that looked like it was worth more than anything she had ever owned. She couldn’t help but laugh because she knew that Gregory was going to be quite mad once he saw the state of this couch as soon as Gideon was done with it. Gideon wasn’t the cleanest individual so he was transferring layers of mud and gore onto the expensive couch.

Gideon was basically a five year old trapped in a twenty-four year old’s body. Though he did have moments of genius, most of his moments were that of childishness. Gideon liked to refer to himself as a practicing doctor who was just too good for the medical community to acknowledge AKA he read a medical book one time and thought that made him an expert. He had a few screws loose but Kyler wouldn’t have him any other way.

Gideon was tall, towering over Kyler and their adoptive “father” Paul though they didn’t really see Paul as their father more like an older brother but legally he was their father. He had about four inches on Kyler and about six inches of height on Paul. His hair was light in color, bordering on blonde and it stuck up in every direction like he had rubbed a balloon over his head and decided not to brush it at all. The same could be said about the beard that he sported on his jaw. The wiry hairs stuck out in every direction and it was relatively unkempt except for the patch of hair just under his lips. There was basically no hair there like he had purposefully shaved right there and that gave him big bushy mutton chops on his cheeks.

His skin was also pale as it could possibly be without actually being translucent, mainly because he was always covered by clothing. He always wore long sleeves and jeans, leaving basically no skin to see the sun ever. There also was giant black circles under his eyes that pretty much made him look as if he was wearing eyeshadow on that part of his eyes. He rarely slept and if he did sleep, he snored like crazy so that meant Kyler didn’t sleep. They took turns letting the other sleep.

Kyler was the opposite of Gideon. She was relatively tall for a woman, going on five feet nine inches of height. Her hair was dark in color, jet black to be exact and it went down just past her jaw in a jagged bob that often had a wave to it. Her skin unlike Gideon’s had pigmentation to it. She was olive skin toned and she actually went out in the sun wearing just a t-shirt and pants. Kyler’s upper body was covered in tattoos that she had gained over the years while the only marking on her lower half is a scar on her thigh from an iron that one of her former foster mothers had given her as punishment. Her eyes were two colors something that Gideon, when he first met her, liked to stare at because he had never seen someone with eyes like hers. Her left eye was a bright emerald green while her left eye was a dull brown color.

“You and I both know what kind of shit I’d be in if _this_ all hadn’t happened.” She finally answered him as he swung his legs around so that he was sitting up straight on the couch, leaving an outline of his body where he had been lying down and he looked up her with a cheeky grin on his face that made her shake her head at him.

She had met Gideon in the foster home that she often was sent back to because “she was too much to handle”. Most of the foster parents didn’t want to deal with Gideon and his tendencies to go a little mental. There was just something up in his brain that certain things brought out this very violent side that was absolutely terrifying. He never really hurt anyone when he was in those other foster homes but there had been one real early on that he snapped and almost ended his foster father’s life.

He was a familiar face that Kyler knew was waiting for her if she got sent back. Often times, she had pushed her foster parents so far on purpose just so that she could get back to Gideon. Gideon and Kyler shared an understanding of each other and their fascinations. Gideon had often been the butt of most of the jokes that the boys at the foster house told and Kyler had broken her fair share of noses for him.

“You’re doing it again.” Gideon commented as he stared down at her right hand which was mimicking the motion of lighting her Zippo up in a nervous fashion and she hadn’t even noticed that she had been doing it.

Her Zippo was kind of her security blanket like a child might have a special stuffed animal they hug when they are upset, that was what that Zippo lighter was to Kyler. That became her security blanket very early in her life. A Zippo lighter had been the only thing that she had of her mother’s though she had lost her mother’s exact Zippo a long time before the zombie apocalypse.

“Yeah, well that tends to happen when your vice is taken from you. How would you like it if I shaved the ferret off your face?” Kyler snarled dangerously as Gideon gasped like a child and his hand immediately went straight to cover his mutton chops from her wrath.

What was comical about that whole scene was the fact that when Gideon moved his arms upwards, a layer of dust flew off of his dirty trenchcoat and coated the fine fabric of the couch he sat on. That and the fact that Gideon looked scared of the smaller woman who he could probably bench press.

Then again he had every reason to be afraid of Kyler, she wasn’t the best person when pissed off. Bruises and blood were often involved when she got mad. He really didn’t want to be on the receiving end of her anger.

“Wanna climb the fence?” Gideon asked her sheepishly as he peered up at her through his fingers which he had placed over his eyes once the words had come out of his mouth. Kyler smiled broadly at her man-child of a friend and reached out, grabbing a hold of his hand and pulling him up onto his feet.

The two of them had a tendency to bring out the rebellious sides of each other. Whenever Paul told them not to do something, Kyler immediately felt like she had to do the exact opposite. Gideon would just go along with Kyler because, well, she hadn’t led him astray yet. Hell, they were both still alive. They just lived a life of danger as Gideon liked to call it.

The two of them bounded out of the large building hand in hand, swinging their intertwined hands back and forth or at least Gideon was swinging their hands back and forth. Kyler was trying to get him to stop but there was no arguing with Gideon.

“Where exactly do you two think you are going?” Paul’s voice sounded out in front of them which halted their happiness. Kyler let out a low _buzzkill_ under her breath as he neared the pair, looking at them with questioning eyes.

“We’re going to bug the animals.” Gideon said matter of factly as Paul raised an eyebrow at his response and turned towards Kyler who just glared at him. She was still mad at him for taking her lighter.

“Do whatever you two want as long as you stay out of people’s ways.” Paul told the two of them as he started to move past them but Gideon ended up bumping into him which Gideon apologized for profusely. Paul just smiled at the bigger man and patted him on the shoulder, telling him that everything was good. Gideon returned a broad grin down at the bearded man and gave him a thumbs up as he jogged to catch up with Kyler who had taken off down the path towards the animals that they kept in the Hilltop Colony.

Gideon grabbed a hold of Kyler’s arm and dragged her behind the large building when he was sure that Paul was out of sight. The two of them headed towards their usual climbing spot on the log fence and Kyler went straight to getting over it. She motioned for Gideon to kneel down so that she could stand on his shoulders and reach the notches in the logs that they had created to make it easier for them to climb up and over. She stepped up onto his shoulders and used the wall to steady herself as he stood up and she pulled herself up onto the top of the wall. She then looked down at Gideon with a giant grin on her face and jumped down from the wall with a low thud. She waited patiently for Gideon to climb up the wall and land next to her.

He fell down from the wall with about as much grace as an elephant. He let out a low groan as he got up from his sprawled out position on the forest floor and he grinned up at Kyler who just rolled her eyes at him. “I got you something!” Gideon said in a voice that reminded Kyler of a little kid in a candy store and well, his eyes shown just that brightly. He slipped his hand into his trench coat’s pocket and pulled out an object that he kept clenched in his fist. He then opened his hand and revealed to Kyler that he had her Zippo.

“You pickpocketed Paul?” Kyler asked in an incredulous tone as Gideon flicked open her lighter and waved it in front of her face like a child trying to torment their sibling with their favorite toy.

Once her words actually went through Gideon’s brain, he flicked the Zippo closed and frowned at the twenty-four year old for basically ruining his fun. “Gideon, who else have you pickpocketed?” Kyler asked in a small tone before moving towards the trench coat wearing man who looked like a child in that very moment. “Don’t make me check your pockets, ‘cause I will.” Kyler wanted to throw up at how much she sounded like Paul in that moment but she needed to know exactly who her furry friend had been stealing from. She just hoped that he had a little common sense to not steal from Gregory. That there would get him kicked out pretty easily considering that Gregory was their leader, even though Paul did most of the heavy lifting.

Gideon huffed dramatically at her and turned out his trench coat’s pockets, causing all the little trinkets that he had taken from various people at Hilltop to fall to the ground. Kyler looked down at the objects at their feet and let out a sigh because of what she saw. There was a roll of condoms right next to her feet that she knew he had taken from the resident man-whore Trent who had drunkenly tried to coax Kyler into sex and her response had been to kick him in the dick. The condoms certainly weren’t for her and Gideon because, well, he was gay and the mere thought of kissing Gideon made Kyler want to throw up. Gideon just liked taking things from people without them knowing.

There was a pack of gum that he had stolen from Harlan, their actual doctor. There was a pack of cigarettes that he had taken from Kal who smoked on the regular and he probably had noticed that the pack had gone missing. Various coins laid at their feet that he had probably taken from Gregory, though the man wouldn’t miss them. Last was probably the weirdest thing Gideon had ever taken from someone and that was a Ziploc bag with pieces of hair in it. Kyler reluctantly picked up the bag and raised an eyebrow at Gideon who looked like a little kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Is this what I think it is?” Kyler asked her cowering friend as his cheeks flushed vibrantly and he tried to look anywhere but Kyler. She knew whose hair was in the bag. Gideon’s obsession with Paul wasn’t a secret and this did not surprise Kyler at all. Paul didn’t really think anything of Gideon liking him. He understood that it was Gideon, well, being Gideon. Gideon tended to cling to things to remain sane and he had chosen Paul around the beginning of the apocalypse to cling to. Though had Gideon been this obsessed with someone outside of the apocalypse it really would have been considered stalking.

Kyler threw the bag of hair aside much to Gideon's dismay and picked up the rest of the objects that had fallen out of his pockets, handing them to him to slide back into where they came from. She then took her Zippo from his hands and moved into the forest outside Hilltop. Gideon followed behind Kyler slowly, kicking up dirt and leaves in a childish manner as he walked along. The two of them were walking through that forest pretty much defenseless except for the small pocket knife that Kyler had slipped into her pants pocket. It wasn’t a great weapon for it was only a few inches long but it got the job done.

They walked through the forest for about a half an hour before they came across something though it wasn’t a Walker. During that time, Gideon talked about probably forty different topics, switching between topics ranging from the science of the Walkers to what he ate for breakfast two months before. Kyler stopped in her tracks when she heard a voice out in the forest that wasn’t Gideon. Gideon moved right up next to her and continued to talk about the strawberry Paul had given him like three weeks ago until Kyler reached up and placed her hand over his mouth. She then pointed in the direction of the other voice and they both stood there silent, waiting to hear it again.

Kyler got her pocket knife out and slowly creeped in the direction she had heard the voice coming from. The two came up to a clearing and immediately hid themselves from what was standing in that clearing. A group of maybe twenty men stood all brandishing weapons ranging from crowbars to assault guns. There was a small group of Walkers on the opposite end of the clearing to the men and it looked as if they were all taking turns hitting the grotesque creatures, like how kids would take turns hitting a pinata.

Gideon crouched down next to Kyler and watched as two burly men wailed on a Walker with their melee weapons which were a crowbar and 2 by 4. There was one particular man that stuck out to Kyler and she knew just by looking at him that he was the leader. He stood tall wearing a sleek black leather jacket with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire in hand and there was something about him that really struck Kyler. He had this big ass smile on his face and he was laughing. Kyler hadn’t seen someone laugh since all this started.

“Lucille’s turn, boys!” The man exclaimed as he raised his bat up and took a few steps towards the last remaining Walker. The man brought down the bat on that Walker’s head so many times that a piece of its head had flown all the way over to where Kyler and Gideon were.

Kyler had never seen someone so happy to be taking down Walkers before. For Paul, killing Walkers wasn’t a sport like it seemed to be for these men. He didn’t like to kill them but he did what he had to survive. It was the same for Kyler or at least that was what she liked to tell herself. Deep down, she knew that she did find it satisfying to end a Walker. She didn’t know though if it was the same satisfaction that these men got from it or not but she didn’t really want to find out.

The men all laughed as the leader took out yet another Walker and Kyler took this as her opportunity to move around the edge of the clearing to get a better look at the group. Gideon was following close behind her as she crept towards the sounds of the men hooting and hollering with joy in their voices. It wasn’t until they got closer that Kyler saw the group of Walkers that was meandering their way towards the sounds coming from the men. Gideon and her went pretty much unnoticed by the small group until Kyler dared to take a step forward and snapped a branch loudly under her foot which caught half of the horde’s attention.

“Goddammit.” Kyler growled under her breath as Gideon grabbed ahold of her arm and pulled her out into the clearing where all the men stood.

All of a sudden, all their guns were pointed at the two of them but soon they were turned towards the Walkers that wanted to take bites out of all of them. Kyler leaned down and grabbed a thick branch from the ground before holding it up in the fashion someone would hold a spear in, ready to stab a Walker in the eye if she has to. Gideon followed in Kyler’s footsteps and found himself a weapon to protect himself with which was a jagged rock.

Most of the Walkers were taken down by the borage of bullets but a few stragglers were left in their wake. The leader was standing not far from Kyler, smiling broadly as one Walker made it's way towards him. “Lucille is ready for your sorry fucking ass.” The man yelled as he brought his bat down on the Walker and it dropped to its knees before he pretty much exploded the creature’s head.

Another Walker made its way towards that man as he brought his bat down on the Walker he had just taken down. Kyler stepped forward and drove her branch into the back of its head as the Walker was distracted by the leather covered man. The Walker then crumbled to the ground with the branch protruding from the back of its skull and Kyler looked up at the man she had basically just saved.

Next thing she knew, her head was throbbing and she was on the ground. “What the fuck?” She muttered out loud as she brought her hand up to where her head was pounding and looked around to see exactly what had happened. A man with long disgusting looking blonde hair stood over her with his rifle in hand and a stern look on his face. That's when Gideon came barreling in and he took that man down quickly which caused all the other men to point their guns at him.

Then it dawned to Kyler that she might just watch her friend get shot down. “NO! DON'T SHOOT!” Kyler screamed as she tried to stand but found herself dizzy and unable to get up on her legs. A gloved hand clapsed around her forearm and hauled her up to her feet.

“You heard the girl. Put your fucking guns down,” The man drawled as Gideon stood up and moved away from the blonde man. “Dwight was the fucking idiot who hit this man’s girl. You gotta fucking protect your own.” Gideon moved to Kyler’s side and wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her steady.

“Name's Negan.” The man told the two of them as he stood up tall almost in a prideful way with his gore covered bat draped over his shoulder.

“I'm Gideon and this is Kyler.” Gideon retorted as he cautiously glanced over at the blonde man who had hit Kyler in the back of her head with his rifle. Negan followed the man's gaze and had a look of understanding cross his face.

“Boys, time to punish Dwight here for hurting this lady.” Negan said as two men grabbed ahold of the guilty man's arms and held him in place. Dwight cried out, saying horrid things about Kyler. “Now that isn't anyway to talk about a fucking lady, is it?” Negan then walked up to a man with dark gray hair and held his hand out to which the man put a large knife into Negan's hand.

Dwight cried out as Negan moved towards him with the knife in hand. Negan didn't seem phased by the man's cries. He still had a big ass smile on his face. “Stop crying, you stupid fuck. You look like a pussy.” Negan sneered as he crouched down to the man's level and held the knife up so he could get a good look at it. Negan then dragged the knife across Dwight's thigh and laughed as the man tried to get away from him.

Kyler had never heard pain in someone's voice like that but something about it felt good to her and she didn't know why.


End file.
